The Finest Walk in the World

---

Greetings from Lake Tekapo, from our YHA hostel, otherwise known as heaven. From the window I am sat near, all I can see is a shiny, turquoise lake, with a section in the middle that looks like a very large mirror. Apart from the odd ripple caused by wind, the water is calm and the atmosphere tranquil. I could honestly stay longer than our allocated three days. Nic is currently outside sapping this haven of peace and beauty and re-uniting with her journal and knowing I have been somewhat neglectful of this blog and indeed at getting in touch in general, I thought it was high time to attempt another catch up and de-brief - this time more soberly. (Yes, the sky dive was recounted after a botlle of wine - did my multiple 'typos' give me away?).

I send large apologies for being rubbish at contact of late, it would appear I have lost myself in this country. I have began to descibe it as a 'mindfield' - bursting with beauty, life, mystery and endless possibility. If ever you went to a country with a complete variety of aspirations, you could certainly achieve them here. From hikes, to skydives to bone carving to swimming with various wildlife, or walking through glaciers to pub crawls or brewery tours to just relaxing with a picnic by a stunningly beautiful lake........ you can do it ALL here. I've never been to a country bursting with so much to do or see and my wallet has never had such a workout.

Since last writing about hurling myself quite literally out of a plane, a number of other adventures have been encountered. To name but a few; a trip to Abel Tasman, a brewery tour in Greymouth, walking through glaciers in both Franz Joseph and Fox, a wee stop over in delightful Wanaka, a trip to party ville - aka Queenstown, a trip around Milford Sound and a four day hike along the Milford Track. It is since arriving back to Te Anau after walking the track that we travelled to Dunedin and then over to Lake Tekapo, where we currently are, grabbing a rest in our quiet hostel.

Abel Tasman certainly didn't disappoint, I think I recalled it in my journal as 'beautifully fresh' - endless greenary, complimented fully by the stunning coast line behind it. We accomplished a four hour bush walk from Torrent Bay to Marahau, experiencing what was described to us as the most scenic part of the track. It was a long time ago now, (it feels like three months ago, not three weeks) but I can still picture myself walking along the track, breathing in the fresh sea air and listening to my music whilst admiring the numerous ferns and trees we passed. Every so often we would come to a look out to the coast, again seeing those turquoise waters I have become so fond of here.

After another walk up to the centre point of New Zealand, our time in Nelson came quickly to an end and we were bound once again, via the Magic Bus to a little town called Greymouth, for what was a one night stop, a compulsory one but serving a useful purpose - a little Brewery tour. We are now more knowledgeable about Monteiths and gladly ordering many of their delights when we venture to the kiwi bars here. It would appear that most people on our bus like beer too and what felt like the majority were soon very tipsy whilst sampling and soon pouring themselves the many different beers on offer. It was a great night for bonding with other bus users and our little unit of three seemed to grow to six as we spent more time with a lovely fellow British lady and two Belgian boys, namely; Stephany, Toon and Wout.

After a hideous 7.00 am alarm the following morning, feeling less than human, we crawled back on our bus to make our way to Franz Josef, where an all day glacier hike was lined up for the following day.
It would appear traveller's (or more honestly - beer drinker's) fatigue was upon me at this point and so I changed my hike to a half day affair. This was still enough time to experience life on a glacier and indeed what it is to hike on ice. Knowing my balance can be questionable at the best of times, the very thought of hiking uphill on ice made me slighly nervous. I needn't have worried, as with crampons on my feet and a nice guide to pave the way - quite literally, by axing away unwanted slush and ice, it made for a brilliant trek. The coolness and freshness of the air helped me revive and kept me alert, and the stunning blue tinge of the ice kept me focussed and happy to walk further. It is hard for me to describe a glacier in anyway that could help you to imagine you were there. Reading back my journal, I can see I have opted for calling it a large, uneven cake, generously iced with the purest white icing - maybe a christmas pudding in it's largest and pointiest form. Scientifically, I've yet to fully grasp the concept of a glacier, how it is formed and why it grows, as being so mesmerised by what I was looking at, I am afraid, I was soon blissfully day-dreaming as our guide attempted explanations. Ah well, there is always Wikapedia.
I feel lucky to have hiked two glaciers here, both different but equally beautiful and allowing me a new experience.

Looking back, our time in Wanaka felt short lived. We arrived to such a beautiful setting of two lakes, with the most scenic of mountains stood bouldly behind them. No wonder so many photo stops are made, the mountainous scenery here in the south island never seems to end, nor do the blue waters. I wish I could put the views in a box, bring them home with me and every so often open it and remember my time here all over again.
After a beautiful afternoon of sitting on the grass, admiring the nearby Lake Wanaka and snowy moutains beyond it, we decided to have an evening meal of snacks and a good few bottles of white ( I won't share how many!). Our serene day turned into a little room party for three as we danced, sang and talked love and life.

With a later start the next day, we were able to enjoy a little more of Wanaka and the gorgeous sunshine and so made our way to the town in order to enjoy a beautiful breakfast and plentiful coffee.
Our heads were a little delicate as we mounted our magic bus once again, and so when the driver later requested our company on a bar crawl around the party capital - Queenstown, I felt less than keen. After being dragged around many a bar by two of the most scary and intense people I have ever met, namely our pub crawl leaders, I am still suprised that I somehow managed to stay up until 6am the next morning.
A full resting day was definately calling after this, as we had a bus trip and cruise lined up to explore Milford sound.

After a much needed fuller night of sleep, we had an early start the next day, beginning with a bus to Milford and then on a boat around Milford Sound. Although a rainy day following maybe too much of the party life, it was a great pleasure to travel the sound by boat. We were able to take in many of numerous waterfalls we passed as they trailed down the mountains, aswell as admire the dolphins as they playfully popped in and out of the water. We also passed seals as they took forty winks on their rocks, unaffected or interrupted by the several boats passing them.

This trip, followed by a lovely Pizza in Winnies when back in Queenstown later that evening, was our last day with Trace, who since moved on, currently following the Magic trail back to Auckland - whilst we made our way back to Te Anau in order to hike on the Milford Track. After a teary goodbye and at the back of many good and memorable times, we hopped on our bus to Te Anau, where a day of total chaos followed as we tried to cobble togther our walking gear. Not an easy task when you are preparing for a four day hike and have no gear of your own. After an expensive and lengthy visit to a local hire shop, we stocked up on plentiful food to last us four days, a bit of vodka and JD for good measure and finally hit the sack.

We had previosuly decided to do this walk with Toon and Wout as they had kindly helped us book it right at the last minute when we needed many a tip. It materialised that we were all walking at similar times and so decided to do it together. So, the four of us caught our scenic boat ride to the Track's Starting point last Saturday.
Our trip began with a 1.5 hour walk to Clinton Hut. After getting off our boat at Te Anau Downs, we stopped for a picnic lunch - the first of many stops for bread and energy bars. The sun shone down on us, making the surrounding scenery of rivers and moutains breath taking and already demonstrating that this walk could well live up to it's tall status - 'The finest walk in the world'.

We soon made our way over the first of many large suspension bridges and along to Clinton Hut. After arriving so early, we had plenty of time to explore the surrounding area and wound up lying on a rather large rock in the river, soaking the glorious sunshine and fending off many a sandfly.
We soon found our way back to a far simpler time, when cooking basic food using a gas stove and later using torch light to play cards and sip our Irish coffees. In the darkness, we made our way ourtside to lie on the ground and admire the stars above, before climbing into our sleeping bags and into the hut for what soon became a somewhat sleepless night, between the bitter cold and snores coming from 20+ randoms it wasn't my best night of sleep thus far.

With a day of hiking in the beautiful and mountainous counrtyside lined up for the next day, I was far from complaining and ready to rally for a second day of walking in the sunshine. Having expected four days of rain, I felt very lucky to have second full day of sunshine. I gazed happily at the perfect blue rivers we walked along as well as the snowy moutains that stood beyond them. From one of which, we saw a live avalanche occur - the snow fell from a great height, roaring as it shot rapidly downwards to the ground. WOW.
The scenery remained similar (but no less exciting) for the rest of the day, greenery and clear blue waters. I felt lucky and humbled to be there (especially as in our usual blagging form, we had booked once again at the very last minute and only just managed to secure our places!) My sense of contentment didn't fade, but my level of comfort did begin to, as not being used to carrying such a huge back pack for 7 hours, I seemed to have pulled a muscle near my rib area and was feeling a tad sorry for myself when we arrived at our next hut - Mintaro Hut. I was soon handed pain relief by a kind couple, also from Belgium and with promises from my fellow walker buddies to carry some of my belongings the next day, I was soon smiling again and preparing myself for day three - the hardest of the four days of walking.

After a a few more card games and some neat vodka to accompany our gas-cooked noodles, I had a great night of sleep and awoke, ready to face a large amount of up and down hill walking. After a luxuary breakfast of stale bread rolls and choclate spread, our journey from Mintaro hut to dumpling hut via the Mackinnon Pass began. Nic and I soon realised that trying to keep up with the pace of our two Belgian friends was going to prove tiring for us and maybe a tad stop / start for them, so we decided to walk separately for the day.
We made our way nicely and gradually to the Mackinnon memorial, on our way admiring Clinton Canyon and between us putting the world to rights.
After an energy bar fix and a fair few photos at the memorial, we made our way over the highest point of the track before beginning our decent to the Dumpling Hut.

We stopped to hug trees, dance on bridges, take pictures of ourselves posing as snails, take silly movies and basically soak up the beauty around us. Singing as we walked, we made our way to the Sutherland Falls - a sidewalk recommended to us to take before going to Dumpling Hut. I am so glad we decided to visit this fall, it was so amazing it actually moved me to tears as it just couldn't sink into my head that I was there before it - the highest waterfall in New Zealand and the fifth highest in the world. Mesmerised, we stood and watched the largest most unlimited amount of water fall with an almighty thrash inot the biggest, most powerful whirlwind pool I have ever seen.

After what was the highlight of my whole walk, Nic and I made our way on a leisurely walk to Dumpling Hut, where our remaining vodka was combined with herbal tea to make a coctail we later named 'The Ranger' - this was after getting our hut ranger, Ian, to try it and demnading a photograph with him whilst he sampled it.

After fending off a Kea or two en route to bed, we had a shorter night of sleep, this was thanks to our 6.30 am alarm set for the day ahead, but also thanks to the Kea birds who decided that 5 am was a great time for a heart to heart or full on squark to squark, little sods.

After one more hut breakie, we made our way back to Milford for the last of our four days of walking. We walked along Arthur river, taking multiple pictures of the endless waterfalls and soon came to Bell Rock. Enticed by the 'Look inside' sign, we were soon all inside a rock resembling a very large and very tall bell. Apparently this was rock was formed when it was tipped over in a rock fall.

After a quick visit to Lake Ada, we made for the end of the track at Sandfly Point over the next few hours - in time for our 2pm boat back to Milford. Sandfly point well and truely lived up to it's name - as on our arrival we were nearly eaten alive by them and quickly moved oursleves into the nearby shelter, where we sat and enjoyed the last of our stale bread and chocolate spread (they even rhyme!). I must here add that I have photogrpahed a poster on the wall for all lovers of PESTS, referring to sandflies as 'Torturous Pests' - (look out on facebook).

No amount of sandflies biting and annoying us could take away the sense of achievement and gratitude I felt at the ending of our hike. I felt quite content as our walk ended and ready to sample some more of New Zealand's beauty on other walks I hope we'll do in our remaining time here.

The latest of my adventures and the last I will recount on what I know is becoming a lengthy blog, was a Wildlife tour that I took from Dunedin.
We drove along the coast to farm land whereby we observed Kingfishers, puketos, blue penguins, yellow-eyed penguins as well as the amazing Royal Albatross, Hooker Sealions and New Zealand Fur Seals. The Albatross flew effortlessly and smoothly over our heads as we tried to photograph their huge and amazing wings. The seals played in their rock pools as we fondly watched them, the penguins waddled adorably along the beach after feeding in the sea and onto the fields in little groups, just in time for us to watch and picture them from the near by observation shelter. The blue pengins were harder to see as they were in their burrow, but none the less looked tiny, living up to their smallest breed of penguin status. We soon backed away as we were growled at by sealions as they kipped / played on the beach - although they seemed to have large and loveable personailities, I was not too tempted to get too much closer having seen how they play fought with one another.
It was pretty awesome to see such a variety of wildlife all within one afternoon and to put a little cherry on my already yummy cake, a rainbow peered out of the sea and into the sky. A beautfiful end to a lovely tour.

It would take millions of words and thousands of hours to be able to share with you in the detail I wish to all I have seen and experienced, the people I have met and just how much I am enjoying once again being a back packer. I just hope a little recap can enlighten you to some extent as to where I have been and what has been happening. I will try not to leave it so long before my next blog and hope to explain my whereabouts in more detail.

Wishing so many of you were with us as always and hoping you are well at home - drop me a line if you get the chance. Thinking of you always and sending loads of love, from the gorgeous Nicola, beautiful, beautiful Lake Tekapo, and me, Lisa xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

---